The president of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, has vehemently attacked Diane Ravitch, arguably the nation’s foremost K-12 education critic and historian, in an op ed published by the New York Post. Wylde not only cites Ravitch’s positions selectively and out of context, but also levels an ad hominem at her – namely, the accusation that changes in Ravitch’s views “seem more tied to her unhappiness with the personalities in the Bloomberg administration than its policies.”

Moreover, as reported in The New York Sun, Wylde based her article on a research file composed by the Education Department, and titled Diane Ravitch: Then and Now, that chronicles and compares Ravitch’s policy positions throughout the years.

Ravitch called Wylde’s tirade a “paid hit job” meant to silence all critics of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration. “It’s a very sad situation, when people don’t feel free to speak their mind,” she said. “The Legislature eliminated the independent board; they eliminated the community boards, and now the mayor and the chancellor are trying to shut down all independent critics,” she added. “That’s dangerous to democracy.”

One wonders who else the Bloomberg administration is keeping a dossier on. Welcome to Moscow or Berlin circa 1935.